Marxfest Diary: Days 12-19

Marxfest Committee member Kathy Biehl chats with Bill Marx during
Marxfest's Global Marx Brothers Shindig on May 15

DAYS 12-14: There were no public Marxfest events last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday -- giving the Marxfest Committee and its various cohorts time to gear up for the second half of the festival.

DAY 15: The second half of the festival began on Thursday, May 15. This was the day designated by Bill Marx (son of Harpo) as the International Day of Laughter, so chosen because it's the actual centennial of the Galesburg, Illinois poker game at which Art Fisher gave the boys their nicknames. (Actually, according to Robert Bader, the fateful event could also have occurred on May 14 or 16.) To mark the occasion, Marxfest held a special event, an online conversation with Bill Marx and a virtual gathering of Marx Brothers fans from around the world.

There were some technical glitches, and we were sorry to hear that some who attempted to participate were either unable to log in, or unable to stream the event once they did. But more than 200 Marxists from both sides of the Atlantic did manage to get in, and were treated to a wonderful exchange. Bill graciously and eloquently answered questions about Harpo, the Marx Brothers, and the significance of their lives and careers. "My dad said, 'I never would have made it without my brothers,'" he told us. He also talked about playing the piano for Allan Sherman's debut performance (attended by all five Marx Brothers), shared memories of Harpo's innate wisdom and decency, and described his father's speaking voice.

The hour flew by, and at the end, Bill said -- not only to us, but to all Marx Brothers fans everywhere: "I want to tell you that I love you." He thanked us, all of us, for loving the Marx Brothers and keeping their comedy alive. The pleasure is ours, sir.

We're hoping to obtain video of the conversation and make highlights available online.

Tigger! as Pinchy in The Pinch Brothers in "The
Bawdy House." Photo by Don Spiro.

Immediately following the Bill Marx Shindig, Marxfest Committee member Kathy Biehl and I high-tailed it to the Players Theatre to catch the second performance of Pinchbottom's Marxfest event, The Pinch Brothers in "The Bawdy House." This self-contained burlesque homage, written and directed by Marxfest Committee member Jonny Porkpie (who also appears as the Grouchovian character Zeigsky Minsfeld) is one of the few Marxfest events in which I played no administrative or creative role. It was a fantastic treat to just sit and enjoy it as a member of the audience.

The show began with a Pinchbottom parody of the old Paramount Pictures logo, followed by newspaper headlines setting up the plot -- a clever and beautifully-executed nod to the opening moments of Animal Crackers. For Marx Brothers fanatics (of which there are more than a few running around the city these days), much of the fun of The Pinch Brothers is identifying the many references to classic Marx material, which Jonny has deftly woven throughout his original libretto. The references I spotted, in addition to the Animal Crackers intro, included:

• A "charades" scene between Pinchy (Tigger!) and Chica (Lady Scoutington), modeled on the Harpo/Chico charades sequences in A Day at the Races, A Night in Casablanca, and Love Happy.
• Porkpie parodies of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" and other Marx standards.
• Tigger!'s spot-on recreation of Harpo's "getting tough" business, as seen in Monkey Business and Horse Feathers.
• Jonny Porkpie and A. Goldfarb hilariously capturing the Groucho/Dumont dynamic, with a twist or two.
• Trav S.D. perfectly embodying the archetypal Marx Brothers detective -- a "pre-noir" lawman, as Trav has said, generally named Hennessy or Henderson. (At other performances, the role is played by Don Spiro.)
• In addition to all the Marx references, The Bawdy House gleefully borrows classic comedy devices from elsewhere (pie fights, silent-movie chases, Donny Vomit as a moustache-twirling villain), nicely contextualizing the Marx mythos.

There are many others, including two classic cinematic Marx Brothers sequences impressively reinterpreted for the stage, but to be more specific would spoil too many surprises. You still have one more chance to see it, this Thursday. Adults only, and all that. For a more detailed account of The Bawdy House, read Trav S.D.'s article about the show.

Day 15 of Marxfest was also a big one for free screenings; at 2:00 you had your choice of A Night at the Opera (96th Street Library) or Room Service (Epiphany Library). The latter venue is showing A Day at the Races on May 22 and Horse Feathers on May 29.

A few Marxfest Committee members, and
friends, at the Brothers' childhood home.

DAY 16: This was a dark day for Marxfest. I don't mean that anything bad happened, just that there were no public events. I barely remember this day. I spent it feverishly preparing for...

DAY 17: I only got to spend a brief amount of time enjoying the Barx Brothers event, but it was a beautiful morning in Yorkville, and it was nice to meet up with part of the group on the steps of the Brothers' childhood home, 179 East 93rd Street. Or 179 Marx Brothers Place.

I had to get to the 96th Street Library to prepare for my own presentation, "The Marxes of Yorkville," which began at noon. The 96th Street Library has a great room downstairs, which they refer to as a meeting room, but which is really a small auditorium. Some years ago, I participated in a "Save Marx Brothers Place" event there, where we screened my film tribute The Brothers, and ever since then I've associated that room with the Marxes.

"The Marxes of Yorkville" was well-attended and seemed to go over nicely. It was a triple bill, starting with my -- lecture? Talk? Presentation? All of these words make it sound like something that would be a chore to sit through. I spoke for about thirty minutes, telling the story of the Brothers' early years in New York, accompanied by photographs and artifacts projected on a screen behind me. It was so much fun, I kind of wanted to keep going and cover their whole career. Maybe some day I'll get to teach a class in Marxism (perhaps in hi skule). But it was time to move on: Next on the bill was a particular treat, Dan Truman and Seth Shelden reading excerpts from Groucho and Me and Harpo Speaks. I'd selected the excerpts, all dealing with the Yorkville years, to complement my talk. Seth, who also plays Harpo in I'll Say She Is this week, told me that it was very helpful having heard Bill Marx's description of Harpo's voice two days earlier.

Noah Diamond speaks at "The Marxes of Yorkville" at the
96th Street Library, May 17. Photo by Amanda Sisk.

Third on the bill was my friend Susan Kathryn Hefti, co-chair of the 93rd Street Beautification Association, who spoke about the "Save Marx Brothers Place" cause, for which she's been working and fighting for many years. The 93rd Street Beautification Association has three goals: 1) to make 179 East 93rd Street an officially designated New York City landmark; 2) to co-name the block Marx Brothers Place; and 3) to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District by one block, thereby protecting the extant historical structures on the block (including 179) from demolition and redevelopment. Susan shared some information about how Marx Brothers fans can help, and that information can be found here.

DAY 18: I'm hoping that Marxfest Committee president Kevin Fitzpatrick will report on the Bronx Zoo "Elephant in Your Pajamas" event which took place on Sunday. I missed that one, owing to a nine-hour marathon rehearsal for the two staged readings of I'll Say She Is which are coming your way this Friday and Sunday at the Players Theatre. (Details are here. Even more details are here.) I'm going to spare you the self-satisfied burbling in which I am tempted to indulge. I'm not going to tell you how exhilarating the rehearsal was, how brilliant the cast is, how historic these readings are, or how sorry you may be if you don't buy your tickets in advance right now and be part of this moment in Marx Brothers history.

DAY 19: There were no public Marxfest events on Monday, but it was nevertheless an important day. It was the actual ninetieth anniversary of the opening night of I'll Say She Is at the Casino Theatre. Nine decades since the boys graduated from vaudeville to Broadway. And how exciting to think that their ninety-year-old vehicle is still "a masterpiece of knock 'em down and drag 'em out humor" (as George Jean Nathan wrote in 1924), and even more exciting to think that you can be part of the first audience to enjoy this work since the original production closed, and all you have to do is buy tickets right now.

I'd better end this before I plug again.

As always, I remain
Yours in Marx,